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A review by pyrrhicspondee
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
3.0
Meh. Ironically, I decided to read this BECAUSE Watkins practically denounced it in that Tin House essay that broke the internet (and delivered absolutely no new information--to me or any of my feminist peeps, anyway). I really enjoyed the first story, "Ghost, Cowboy," and the weird gold rush story "The Diggings", and "The Archivist." But many of the rest just read as dated now: oh, hey, look, another "moment of realization" short story. Whatever to the "moment of realization" story, especially because they often skip the moment of realization. So, why did I read this story when nothing happened? What is so bad about plot structure? Why have contemporary short story writers ditched the climax?
Also, I'm pretty over rape and/or sexual abuse as a big reveal or as the climax (oh, ugh, oh). So that kind of killed a few stories for me. Really, once the rape went down in whatever story that was--hold on, lemme look--"Rondine Al Nido," I was kind of over it and distrustful. Turns out Watkins DID write this book for white men. Or at least her suggestion that she did, combined with my inherent distrust of rape as a plot device, distanced me from a lot of these stories.
Also, I'm pretty over rape and/or sexual abuse as a big reveal or as the climax (oh, ugh, oh). So that kind of killed a few stories for me. Really, once the rape went down in whatever story that was--hold on, lemme look--"Rondine Al Nido," I was kind of over it and distrustful. Turns out Watkins DID write this book for white men. Or at least her suggestion that she did, combined with my inherent distrust of rape as a plot device, distanced me from a lot of these stories.